Pindalopa (पिण्डलोप) arises where the oblation to the manes is interrupted or rendered inefficacious. In the old days it was said 'a father whose daughter is still unmarried at the time of her first menses has sinned. Menstrual blood flows back to pollute the oblation to the ancestors.' The meaning is that a father should make arrangements for his daughter's wedding rather than wait till she gets pregnant. In the early twentieth century, more and more middle class Hindu families educated their daughters and postponed their marriage till they had matriculated or graduated. Sadly, some silly people might taunt such girls, whose families had not arranged their marriage because they hoped they'd matriculate. Alternatively, such a girl might resent having to study rather than have a household of her own as a married lady. When an unmarried girl hanged herself while menstruating, there was an implied rebuke of her father for having committed a 'Pindalopa' category sin.
Spivak says-
A young woman of sixteen or seventeen, Bhuvaneswari Bhaduri, hanged herself in her father’s modest apartment in North Calcutta in 1926. The suicide was a puzzle since, as Bhuvaneswari was menstruating at the time, it was clearly not a case of illucit pregnancy.
This was not clear at all. Strangulation can itself cause miscarriage. The obvious significance of a girl hanging herself while menstruating was that she believed her father had committed a pindalopa category sin. It so happened that Bhaduri had complained that a brother in law had teased her saying she had passed the age for marriage. Thus, there was no mystery as to what happened. Hindus would immediately say 'Ah! Pindalopa! The menstrual flow of the unmarried daughter pollutes the pinda oblation to the ancestors. The girl did not want to pursue education. She wanted to be married. Alternatively, someone had kept teasing and taunting her and the elders did not take action. So the girl took an extreme step.'
To be clear, since Education, for Hindus, was associated with celibacy, an exception was created to the rule 'marry off a girl by the time they are ready for child bearing'. But education isn't for everyone.
Spivak was writing about an aunt who had died about 15 years previous to her own birth. She herself may not have known the 'pindalopa' rules or may have repressed the memory of hearing of such things. Alternatively she may simply have been a fantasist with little knowledge of her own history and culture.
She writes-
Nearly a decade later, it was discovered that she was a member of one of the many groups involved in the armed struggle for Indian independence.
There was no such struggle in 1926. Three years later some educated women started such revolutionary activities because...urm... that seemed a cool thing to do. Some of them later became politicians and were elected to Legislative Assemblies.
She had finally been entrusted with a political assassination.
Hindus and Muslims were killing each other at that time. But no 'political assassinations' were occurring.
Unable to confront the task and yet aware of the practical need for trust, she killed herself.
All the Bengali female revolutionaries were older and living independently. Nobody entrusted assassinations to girls still living with their parents. Why? Such girls were not allowed to go wandering about by themselves. They went to school and came straight back home. They slept near their mother or grandmother. When not studying, they were cooking and cleaning and looking after the baby of the elder daughter-in-law.
Bhuvaneswari had known that her death would be diagnosed as the outcome of illegitimate passion.
Not if she was as ugly as shit and subject to taunts about how she was now too old to get an arranged marriage.
She had therefore waited for the onset of menstruation. While waiting, Bhuvaneswari, the brahmacrini
a brahmacharini lives in the Ashram of her Guru. Mahatma Gandhi and so forth had plenty of such acolytes. But this girl had been condemned to a secular education- passing exams in Eng Lit and Geography and so forth.
who was no doubt looking forward to good wifehood, perhaps rewrote the social text of sati -suicide in an interventionist way.
You can't be a Sati unless you are married. An unmarried woman who hangs herself may be protesting the fact that Daddy didn't pay dowry and get her hitched before it became apparent that she would be as ugly as shit. Also enough with this Inglis-Winglis education already! It makes girls stoooooopid.
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